EP 132: Japan- The Tongue Cut Sparrow 舌切り雀 (Yei Theodora Ozaki 1908)

Sandman Stories Presents

In this classic, an old man has just one joy in life; his sparrow. He lives at home with his wife, but she has long since become a mean and spiteful person. One day she lays out some starch for the wash and the little sparrow eats it up, thinking it is a treat. For that, the old woman punishes the sparrow by cutting out its tongue and sending it on its way. The old man must find his magical friend and make things right. Can the little old man do it?

Source: Japanese Fairy Tales by Yei Theodora Ozaki 1908

Narrator: Dustin Steichmann

Music: 楚歌 －2019年12月9日サントリーホール by Shun Kuremoto
Sound effects country side soundscape with cicadas by fabiopx on Freesound.org

Podcast Shoutout: Irish History Podcast My Name is Fin Dwyer, I am 39 year old historian, author and podcaster. I studied archaeology and Greek and Roman Civilisation in University College Dublin and completed a masters in archaeology in 2004. After working in archaeology for several years in the Dublin region a combination of recession and ill-health ended my aspirations to become Indiana Jones. In 2010 I created the Irish history podcast. For the first few years the show focused on medieval history.

Listener Shoutout: The city of Tehran has a population of approximately 10 million in 2016. With its cosmopolitan atmosphere, Tehran is home to diverse ethnic and linguistic groups from all over the country. The present-day dominant language of Tehran is the Tehrani variety of the Persian language, and the majority of people in Tehran identify themselves as Persians. However, before, the native language of the Tehran–Ray region was not Persian, which is linguistically Southwest Iranian and originates in Fars, but a now extinct Northwestern Iranian language. Via Wikipedia

"Sparrow" by barryskeates is marked with CC BY 2.0.